


Nice Apron, Captain Hook

by alchemystique



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Captain Charming - Freeform, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 09:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1977105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alchemystique/pseuds/alchemystique
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Killian gets bored in the time when the rest of the world is out having day jobs, so naturally, he finds a hobby in being annoyingly helpful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nice Apron, Captain Hook

**Author's Note:**

> This is just Killian fluff. There is literally nothing of value in here, and most of the townspeople are just me in different meat suits. Also Granny’s name is Beth, because I say so.

**Nice Apron, Captain Hook**

 

It starts with a few odd jobs here and there.

Ruby drops a pot of coffee and Killian slides into the back to pick up a mop without blinking, three hundred years on a shop with an ever depleting crew, fewer and fewer men to do the deck work still ingrained in his mind, and he's done before Granny even notices the spill. She is, however, there when he returns the mop, and the way his face goes bright red and he just _lets_ her rail on him about his thieving pirate ways, face bright red and silent until Ruby comes to his rescue a minute later.

It's all very endearing, Mr. I'm The Captain Of This Vessel letting a woman who is, for all intents and purposes, quite a bit younger than him reprimand him for something that definitely hadn't happened, and when Granny goes bright red and starts profusely apologizing he waves it off like it's no big deal.

"I will request permission next time, milady," he says, and Granny is _smitten_.

Snow watches the way Emma's eyes track his movements back to their table, and makes a point to be nicer to him for the rest of the meal, hyper aware of the soft smile on Emma's face as he throws an arm over the back of the booth to twirl a tendril of hair in his fingers, and the way Henry _beams_ at a promise of honest to god sword practice with the great and terrible (completely adorable, really) Captain Hook.

\----------

A week after the whole clumsy Ruby incident, the diner is _swamped_ and Ruby can only be in so many places at once. 

When she sees Killian come down from his room he smiles, and she tries not to look too harried, but from the raised eyebrow it doesn't actually play as well as she might have hoped. On a shrug, she rushes back into the kitchen.

Leroy yells something back at her from the end of the bar, the absolute _grump_ that he is, and Ruby lets the door swing shut behind her without acknowledging it.

By the time she gets back with the tray of pies she's already run out of twice today, there are three tables cleaned that weren't before and Killian seems to be lecturing Leroy. 

From behind the bar.

He has a towel tucked half into his jacket pocket and a coffee pot in his hand, gesturing vaguely threateningly with the hook while Leroy cows from the barstool, managing to look both guilty and sullen at the same time, and Killian waves her off when someone else demands a refill from her, sliding two seats down to give her new needy customer a severe look while he pours more coffee.

He helps her through the rush without comment, and she wonders just how much time he's spent watching them work in the last few weeks, because there's hardly a single question he has to ask. He takes orders and cleans tables and brews more coffee, alighting on every single impatient guest with a lecture so stern not a single one of them tries to so much as wave her down again. She can't decide if its more likely he's threatening them with his hook or her fangs, but either way she's grateful.

At half past two, just as Killian is sliding into a booth to eat his lunch (six hours later than the breakfast he'd planned, and seriously, how was this man even real?) Granny comes in, makes an off hand comment about how clean the place is, and disappears before Ruby can so much as open her mouth.

Killian grins at her from across the way.

\-------

When Killian first approaches him, Marco is skeptical - he is, after all, Captain Hook, even if he does seem to spend most of his time with Snow and Charmings lovely daughter. 

But he's very polite, and has a number of questions Marco has the answer to, and when he comes back a week later to ask about the sorts of machinery he might be able to use with only the one hand, Marco sort of accidentally takes him under his wing. It's mostly little things - he builds a picture frame, relattice's Granny's archway, they cut new fence posts and after some consultation even manage to fix the leak in the B and B that Granny has refused to fix for the last two years merely because the leak is in the laundry room and no one ever stays long enough to notice.

It takes a week for Granny to even notice, but when she finds Killian vaulting off the roof of the diner, mission completed, she cuffs him good naturedly and tells him she _won't_ be paying off any medical bills, thank you very much.

Marco can't help the grin that forms when Hook snarks back at her, watching the two of them squabble happily. Hook promises not to endanger himself any more and Granny looks like she wants to hug him and throttle him all at the same time.

Two days later he's asking Marco about things only an electrician should be dabbling in, and Marco sends him off with directions to not ever attempt to fix the wiring.

He's not surprised when, a week later, he hears from Pinocchio, who heard from Sarah Anne, who heard from Paige and Henry that Killian had managed to both electrocute himself and shut the power in the Bed and Breakfast off for two hours.

\----------

"Don't you think this is getting to be a bit of a ridiculous habit?"

Beth Lucas finds Killian bent under a sink in one of her unoccupied rooms, tinkering with the u-bend and wearing what looks to be one of David Nolan's skin tight, see through shirts, and she's old, but she's not dead, and when he slides out from under she gives herself one long moment to take him in, but the moment she sees his ruffled hair and the soft grin on his face the effect is lost. 

The man is an adorable puppy, and Beth has a hard time understanding how Emma Swan ever could have said no to the man.

"Sorry, love?"

"Killian Jones, stop trying to repair the entire town." She's well aware 98% of his projects happen under her roof, but he's surprisingly uncomfortable with being known as a do-gooder of any sort and even less comfortable being the object of gratefulness, so she keeps it to a minimum. On occasion.

He shifts, nervously, as he is wont to do in any sort of situation like this, and bites his lip. "I've nothing else to do with my time."

He's got a pile of books growing every higher on the dresser in his room, and from what she can tell has begun mapping out the lay of Storybrooke, he spends every moment he can with Emma and her son, and yet the man still insists he has nothing to do with his time.

"How do you feel about aprons?" she asks, and his confused furrowed brow honestly makes Beth want to pat the top of his head and scratch behind his ear, neither of which things she actually does as she leads him out the door and down the stairs.

\----------

"Bar wench! Another!"

Emma rolls her eyes even as Killian lobs a balled up napkin across the dining room, hitting the side of David's head with an accuracy that would surprise anyone who hadn't caught him playing paper football at the kitchen table with her son two weeks ago.

David pouts when Killian turns away to help someone else, staring forlornly at his empty glass while Emma sips on her hot chocolate. 

"Should have saved the bar wench comment until after he refilled your iced tea."

"Yes, point taken, but - Emma." She hums, eyes following the man in question while he grins and mutters something no doubt absolutely inappropriate in Ruby's ear. "Emma, _he's wearing an apron_. The fearsome Captain Hook. Emma. This is comedy gold."

"I think it looks...dashing." The corner of her lip quirks up when David groans at her, and when Killian passes by a few minutes later he's still glaring in annoyance at the space behind her head. 

"Nice apron," David says, and the jug of iced tea leaning towards his cup is pulled away while Killian leans in close to Emma, lips held just a hairs breadth from her own while her father tries not to act like a small child seeing adults kissing.

"What do you say we got out of here, darling? No charge for you, milady." The voice is quiet and soft, the look the sort you might see on a particularly seductive bar maid.

And he is absolutely ridiculous, trying to get a rise out of David, but her giggling only makes David physically _slap_ a hand over his eyes, because he actually is two years old, and Killian presses a quick kiss to her lips before he stands again. 

"I will sick the dwarves on you, pirate," David tells him, and Killian's smirk shifts into devious competitiveness. 

"Their ringleader is afraid of me. And they all like me better than you, anyway, _Your Majesty_."

He disappears through the kitchen doors before David can do much more than look shocked, and Emma bursts into especially loud laughter when, a moment later, Leroy walks through the front door, sees Killian pouring coffee, and turns straight back out the door, heading towards the street a crisp walk.


End file.
